A+B=C.
That's one of those formulas that can be used to take data and apply it, under specific circumstances, to discover the outcome, or solution.
Maths is great like that. There are "right" and "wrong" solutions.
Psychology and people are less so. Sure, there are general guidelines that can be used to understand people, where most people "fit," but with humans, you get outliers - solutions that are not immediately explainable, and answers that, plain and simple, don't make sense.
I do enjoy a good scientific study on humans, though, so when I saw that a study had been done on ex-Mormons, including the "why"s and "how"s, I was thrilled.
I've now read it. And I've since concluded that sometimes people make perfect, predictable sense - like maths.
Listed below are the uninspiring conclusions that these scientists came to, after studying ex-Mormonism, to explain what causes faith crises.
The only thing truly surprising about this list is how they were able to format the answers in such a way as to avoid stating exactly what the problem was. But to me, the problem and answers are as clear as A+B=C.
"Our research team identified four primary factors that drive Faith Crisis:
1) Unprecedented Access to Uncorrelated Information
2) Continual Access to Uncorrelated Information
3) Unprecedented Content Creation and Consumption
4) The Mormon Movement"
Seems like this "uncorrelated information" may be the root of the problem. What does that mean?
Information that has not been "correlated," or information that "lacks a mutual relationship or connection."
These people literally just said that information that is not written with our narrative and/or our bias in mind is causing faith crisis.
It's not even an issue of perspective. It's information written by first-hand accounts and witnesses to the formation of the organization. The "narrative" is what changed. And people having access to "uncorrelated information," otherwise known as "HISTORY" is causing them to leave Mormonism.
Thank you, Google, for making documents available to us naysayers, so we can read history, and know that it was never about "milk strippings," and whatever lies the narrative attempted to sell us as truths.
The unprecedented content creation is this blog. Dammit. People keep reading the history and talking about the truth.
Blaming the Mormon Movement? I think that's just saying that Hulu has made some great shows that also provide access to all that "uncorrelated information."
You know you have a problem when people are leaving your organization because they are learning the truth about it, and you go to such incredible lengths to blame literally everything but yourselves. It displays very little insight into themselves, and shows their incredible talent at spinning some serious lawyer-ly language.
It's not Joseph Smith Jr that's the problem - it's the internet and the smartphone, for making information ABOUT Joseph Smith Jr so readily available.
People are having crises of faith because they are finding out the truth - that they have been outright lied to by those who professed to be their spiritual guides.
On my mission I sang a musical number, once, of a song that I truly believe in: "Oh Say, What is Truth."
1. Oh say, what is truth? 'Tis the fairest gem
That the riches of worlds can produce,
And priceless the value of truth will be when
The proud monarch's costliest diadem
Is counted but dross and refuse.
2. Yes, say, what is truth? 'Tis the brightest prize
To which mortals or Gods can aspire.
Go search in the depths where it glittering lies,
Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies:
'Tis an aim for the noblest desire.
3. The sceptre may fall from the despot's grasp
When with winds of stern justice he copes.
But the pillar of truth will endure to the last,
And its firm-rooted bulwarks outstand the rude blast
And the wreck of the fell tyrant's hopes.
4. Then say, what is truth? 'Tis the last and the first,
For the limits of time it steps o'er.
Tho the heavens depart and the earth's fountains burst,
Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst,
Eternal, unchanged, evermore.
When your own conclusions lead to a crisis of faith resulting in only one of two options - BOTH of which are not "true-believer" - it says that you know your own story is not true, and once someone has seen "behind the curtain," at the Wizard of Oz, there's no going back - the mortality of it is laid bare, and it will never again be divine.
These are the people who are leaving, and no, it's not their fault, their concerns aren't lies, and a covenant made without informed consent is not binding. (So don't come at me with your bowie knives and your muskets, thanks.) The saddest part, for me, is that his income was listed - because that's what was important to church leadership the whole time - earning potential. This is why some were raised up, in nepotistic fashion, and why others were ignored. Because it wasn't about the spiritual capacity of the individual, but their earning potential.
It's knowing that this loss: 
matters more to the church than THIS loss:
Not because they are people, but because they are numbers.
As a missionary, I was taught to think of people as numbers.
How do we get member present lessons? How do we get Oscar to accept a baptismal date?
A+B=C.
It's not as complicated as they want to believe it is. The answer is to just stop lying.
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